Digest

Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio, who pleaded guilty last month in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation, resigned from Congress on Friday.

The Ohio Republican, who had been pressed to quit by fellow lawmakers, sent a letter of resignation to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, according to Ney's chief of staff, David Popp.

Ney pleaded guilty Oct. 13 to conspiracy and making false statements, acknowledging taking trips, tickets, meals and campaign donations from disgraced lobbyist Abramoff in return for official actions on behalf of Abramoff clients.

House Republicans had threatened to expel Ney if he didn't quit by the time lawmakers returned to Washington after Tuesday's elections.

Republican candidates in Ohio had also been pressing for Ney's resignation. His hand-picked successor, state Sen. Joy Padgett, has been dogged on the campaign trail by Ney's lingering presence in office. Washington, D.C.

U.S. investigating reports of vehicle engine fires

The government has opened an investigation into some Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute sport utility vehicles after receiving complaints of engine compartment fires, Ford Motor Co. said Friday.

The investigation involves more than 600,000 SUVs from the 2001-03 model years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had received eight complaints of engine fires around the antilock braking system's electronic control module.

Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley said Friday there have been no reports of injuries linked to the fires and the automaker was cooperating with the agency's investigation.

Ford and NHTSA said the review was not connected to a two-year investigation of engine fires linked to the cruise control systems in Ford trucks, SUVs and vans.

That investigation led to the recall of about 5.8 million Ford vehicles in 2005 and 2006.

Washington, D.C.

Salmonella outbreak linked to restaurant tomatoes

Contaminated fresh tomatoes served in restaurants were the cause of a recent salmonella outbreak that sickened dozens of people in 21 states, health officials said Friday.

The outbreak, now over, sickened at least 183 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were no reports of deaths, although 22 people were hospitalized. Interviews with victims, including detailed surveys of what they had eaten and where before falling sick, led investigators to suspect restaurant tomatoes as the cause.

"We have identified tomatoes eaten in restaurants as the cause of this outbreak," said Dr. Christopher Braden, a food-borne outbreak and surveillance expert with the CDC.

The Food and Drug Administration has begun investigating the source of the contaminated tomatoes, said Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

Texas

Judge asks U.S. to defend detention of Cuban exile

EL PASO A judge has given the U.S. government a Feb. 1 deadline to provide evidence justifying the detention of anti-Castro Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles.

Posada's lawyers contend the United States is violating a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that foreign nationals who cannot be deported could not be held indefinitely. The high court set a six-month maximum, but Posada has been in U.S. custody at an El Paso detention facility for more than a year.

U.S. District Judge Philip Martinez is considering Posada's latest request for a release.

A former CIA operative with ties to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in the 1960s, Posada has been accused of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner in Venezuela.

Cuba and Venezuela want Posada, who was born in Cuba and is a naturalized citizen of Venezuela, to be sent back to the Venezuela to face trial in the bombing.

New York

Detective fights suspension over drug test, blames wife

NEW YORK A detective suspended after testing positive for drugs says his wife served him meatballs spiked with marijuana because she wanted to keep him out of harm's way by forcing him into retirement.

An administrative judge believed him, and recommended earlier this week that Nicholas Chiofalo be reinstated.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has yet to decide what to do.

Chiofalo, a 22-year-veteran assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, was suspended without pay last year after a random drug test found marijuana in his system. The officer denied ever using drugs.

During an investigation, his wife said she had substituted marijuana for oregano in her meatball recipe in hopes of forcing him to leave police work. The detective's lawyers also presented evidence that she had passed a lie detector test, and offered testimony from a toxicologist that the excuse was valid.